A Mother's Forgiveness
by idealskeptic
Summary: One-shot. Canon-y. Emmett McCarty lived a wild life in the mountains of Tennessee before he lost a fight to a bear. But family is everything to the people there so Emmett has always felt guilty about not being what his family needed him to be. Twenty-five years after he becomes a Cullen, he gets a chance to apologize to his mother. This is how it happens...


**Don't own a word of it.**

This is the third PTB prompt that I wrote before I gave up on the challenge.

The prompt: **a mother's forgiveness**

And consider yourself warned, I have let some people read this and they yelled at me (and thanked me) for making them cry.

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**A Mother's Forgiveness**

Emmett stood in the shadows outside the small house high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He was waiting for night to fall before he stole silently inside the house that seemed both eerily familiar and unnervingly unfamiliar at the same time. Only then could he do what he came to do in safety and privacy.

"Soon," Edward murmured at his left side. "They're getting ready for bed."

"What if I wake them up? I don't want to have to kill them."

Jasper put his hand on Emmett's right arm and Emmett felt himself calm. "I'll keep them in a deep sleep," he promised his brother of ten years. "No one will know you're there."

"Whistle? If I need to leave?"

Edward and Jasper both nodded before Edward tilted his head toward the house. "Go now. She's alone in the bedroom and the others aren't going in."

Emmett crept toward the back screen door, looking over his shoulder at his brothers once more before he stepped inside the dark house. He recognized the layout of the house a little bit, but he followed the sounds of labored breathing to the small bedroom next to the kitchen and slipped in.

His mother looked nothing like his hazy memories of her. The mother he remembered had been, as she always put it, just plump enough with a full head of dark brown hair. Even after seven babies all grown up, she'd hardly looked more than thirty. He remembered his father first and then his brothers chasing newcomers in town away from her when the men came tomcatting around. They'd even fired warning shots at a couple stubborn ones.

The woman on the bed… she was all bones and puckered, wrinkled skin. Her hair was wiry, thin, and a sort of ashy, dead gray.

It wasn't right that things changed so much in just twenty-five years.

Emmett knelt of the floor next to her bed and tucked his hand under his arms to keep from touching her. He knew his cold skin would wake her and if he woke her, he'd have to leave.

"I'm sorry, Ma," he murmured as softly as he could. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I haven't been here to look after you when you got old and sick. I'm sorry I wasn't a good son when I was around."

She stirred against the yellowed sheets and her skeletal fingers flexed as though they were reaching out to him. Emmett held himself back, though, even though it was killing him not to touch her.

"I know I worried you a lot, Ma," he whispered, "but I didn't mean to. I was just trying to have a good life before I had to grow up and be a man. That's all. I'm sorry, Ma.

"I meant to grow up and make you proud of me, I really did. Maybe you were a little bit proud of me? I hope so. I hope I didn't just give you grief all my life."

She stirred more forcefully, and her whole body edged toward where Emmett was kneeling but still he kept himself under careful control.

"Remember how you always used to tell me to listen to Pa when he took me out hunting in the woods?" he continued. "Well, I tried to do that too. But it wasn't always so easy and I did stupid things, Ma. I got in a fight with a bear and that's why I didn't come home that day.

"I tried to come back when I could and leave money for you and my brothers. You probably thought it was dropped on your doorstep by an angel. I'm no angel, Ma, but I put it there. I wanted you to be okay and not need anything. Not ever.

"Don't worry, Ma, I didn't rob a bank to get the money. In my life now, I've got a brother named Edward and he's richer than you could ever imagine. He gave me the money to give you. So when you get to Heaven, tell Elizabeth and Edward Masen that they raised a good boy.

"I've got another brother too. His name's Jasper and he's a Confederate just like Granddaddy was so you'd like him. I don't know his parents' names but they raised a good boy too, even if he doesn't believe it.

"I got a girl, Ma, and she's my angel. Her name's Rosalie and she loves me even though I'm a big, dumb hillbilly. She says I must've been a good son to you because I got her as a reward in my life now.

"You won't see me in Heaven when you get there, Ma. But don't worry about me. I'm okay where I am." A sob escaped from Emmett's chest before he could stop it and he knew he had to hurry. "I love you, Ma, so much. I hope you never forgot that. I hope you never forget that. I love you, Ma."

He stood up to leave. He heard Edward and Jasper whisper in unison from outside that he should do it, and he did. He leaned down and pressed his lips to her forehead.

Her eyes opened and she stared up at him.

He recognized the faint traces of life in her hazel eyes, and he told himself what he saw was recognition. He was ready to flee but Edward told him to stay.

Her cracked, pale lips moved silently twice before a shaking sound came out. "My boy," she breathed, the effort rattling in her chest. "My boy."

"I'm here, Ma," he whispered, blinking back the tears he could never shed for her. "I'm here."

"Be… good… boy," she told him as her fingers wrapped around his wrist. "Be good… for Mama."

"I will, I will," he promised. "I'm sorry, Ma. I love you."

She shook her head slowly, painfully. "Don't… sorry. Good boy. Mama… Mama loves you… Emmett."

He held on to her until her eyes closed and her fingers slid from his wrist. He knew the end was near and he kissed her once more and left the house where he'd been born for the last time.

**The End**


End file.
